There are five comprehensive items in this excellent resource which has been donated to the Resource Library by Gordon Holding from Tamworth U3A. As each item is very large in content, only one could be uploaded Victorian World Views – to whet your appetite (see below).

There are powerpoints and notes for each session, however you will need to read each document and pencil in where each slide change occurs.The Library Manager will send you all the material if you contact her at lynstewart@netspace.net.au

Introduction to Victorian Britain – In the early 19th century the Monarchy was unpopular, seen as German spongers and was widely assumed to be on the way out. Victoria was to rescue it with a little help from jingoism and the British Empire. At first she was quite popular but then several scandals undermined this. However, by the 1850’s she and her husband seemed to symbolise happy moral family life.

Victorian Britain Cities – Victorian Britain faced a unique challenge – how to live in an industrialised and urbanised world. Cities grew rapidly during the 19th century in response to industrialisation, people driven off the land by landlords and a rising population.

Victorian Britain Industry – In the Victorian Era the Industrial Revolution continued apace. By the 1850’s

Britain had become the world’s richest country.

Britain’s banks had more money on deposit than the rest of the world combined.

Britain had 1.6% of world pop. 20% world industrial output , 33% of world trade.

Victorian Britain Crime and Punishment – The pictures of Victorian crime that we get from Dickens, and later Sherlock Holmes and the Jack the Ripper case, can lead us to think that the Victorian era was a high crime period.

Historians such as David Jones have carefully analysed the statistics of reported crime and court cases in Georgian and Victorian times to try to assess the extent of crime then. They have also looked at the criminal statistics produced by the London Metropolitan Police which kept careful records from the 1830’s.

Victorian World Views – The Ideas first developed in the Victorian Period still form the backdrop to our political views today. Download